Sunday, December 06, 2015

The Giving of December. Amurosaurus

  Amurosaurus has been based only upon very partial remains,‭ ‬though these were taken from a bonebed of multiple dinosaurs,‭ ‬and further remains are likely to be in there somewhere.‭ ‬Slowly the picture of a‭ ‬lambeosaurine hadrosaurid‭ (‬the kind with a hollow crest) has been pieced together with an appearance similar to that of the earlier Corythosaurus from North America.‭ ‬One of the most interesting things about Amurosaurus is that once again we can see a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid living in Asia near the end of the Cretaceous at a time when they seem to have largely vanished from North America‭ (‬instead solid to no‭ ‬crested saurolophine hadrosaurid were predominant here‭)‬.‭ ‬This might actually correspond with one theory where the lambeosaurines are surmised to have evolved in Asia and then crossed over to North America via a land bridge.
       The bone bed where fossils of Amurosaurus were found also has the remains of another hadrosaurid called Kerberosaurus alongside them.‭ ‬Many of these bones also bear the tooth marks of various theropod dinosaurs,‭ ‬though at this stage it is only evidence of feeding.‭ ‬They do not yet reveal if the dinosaurs had been killed or just scavenged by meat eaters.‭ ‬Another hadrosaurid discovered near the Amur River,‭ ‬though this time on the Chinese side is Charonosaurus.‭ ‬Predators of Amurosaurus may have included Asian genera of tyrannosaurs such as Tarbosaurus.

No comments: